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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Spring Cleaning Days 1-10

I have embarked on an epic cleaning mission. The Organised Housewife has been running a 20 day cleaning challenge on her blog and seeing as its now Spring in the southern hemisphere it's the perfect time to Spring clean. I've been uploading all my pics to Instagram and Flickr throughout the challenge.

Funnily enough I had reorganised my own cleaning schedule just two weeks before this all started and I was pretty up to date on most of my cleaning jobs. For some reason I love making cleaning routines, I don't always stick to them but just having them written out makes me feel more organised and in control of the housework. So I had my morning and evening routines down pat and a fairly easy to follow weekly job list in place. I think without this the 20 day cleaning challenge would be more challenging. Plus I had a mini spring clean back in July when we had a big party and family staying at our house and I was in super cleaning mode for about four weeks prior to that.

So on with the challenge...

Day 1 ~ Under the kitchen sink. It wasn't too bad under there but I had loads of cleaning stuff that belonged in the laundry and for some weird reason about six cans of fly spray! LOL

Day 2 ~ Main Bedroom ~ This is one room that I just kept putting off and putting off. It wasn't a huge mess but the dressers needed a good dust and I needed to cull some of the ornaments and nic nacs, so it was good to give it a good going over. Even vacuumed under the bed woohoo! Absolutely dreading doing the walk in robe though!! I'm sure that job will pop up soon in the challenge.

Day 3 ~ Laundry ~ Again wasn't too bad as I tidy, sweep and mop the laundry every few days because of the cats sleeping in there. I did clean the glass sliding door which was something I haven't done in forever! Another task for today was organising a laundry routine which I'm still not sure will work for us. I try and do a load every day as it is and it's usually which ever pile is the biggest one gets done. The last thing I want to end up with is loads of washing to fold and put away and I think if I wait a week to do dark colours I will end up with loads because we all wear so many dark colours with school uniforms and works uniforms etc. Anyway will give it some more thought and if my routine is working the way it is why change it.

Day 4 ~ Lounge room ~ Quick dust and wipe over was all that was needed here.

Day 5 ~ Floors and tidy the pantry ~ Floors all done and pantry tidied. It was tempting to pull everything out but she said just a tidy up so that's all I did. I've come to the conclusion that I buy too much food that we don't end up using and I need to make more use of all those darn plastic containers that are overflowing out of my cupboards!!

Day 6 ~ Bathrooms ~ I hate cleaning bathrooms that is all :p

Day 7 ~ The dreaded fridge! We need a new fridge, our one is old and small. I'm sure I could be more organised with a bigger fridge! Also we have way too many condiments! Why my husband needs fifty types of BBQ sauce I will never know!!

Day 8 ~ Kids toy room ~ This was a toughie!! It was pretty tidy anyway because I got stuck into the kids a couple of days before about tidying it up, which they did very well bless their cotton socks! I get very anal about the toy room because I like things to be very ordered, I have spent countless hours organising, printing out labels, buying hundreds of bloody plastic containers and tubs. Only for my kids to mix everything up and mess all my tedious organising up in a matter of hours. So it pains me when I have to chuck Barbie dolls in with Littlest Pet Shops and such. But I have to let my anal ways go when it comes to this room otherwise I will have a nervous breakdown I'm sure. So back to the cleaning day, well I basically picked up was left on the floor, piled up the toy boxes that were out and said I'm done. My plan is that next year when all my girls are in full time school I will devote a day each week to purging and tidying up the toy room. I really would like to get rid of some toys they don't play with anymore but if the kids are home when I try to do it they start playing with them again so I don't chuck anything out. I will get there one day.

Day 9 ~ Kitchen drawers ~ I have too many utensils!!!

Day 10 ~ Tupperware cupboard ~ OMG! Why do I have so many plastic containers!!?? It doesn't help when hubby decides to buy more because they are on special lol. I mean seriously what man buys plastic containers!??...Mine does *sigh*
Anyway I did purge a few and tried to use as many in the fridge and pantry as I could. I really need to get rid of more or at least stop hubby buying anymore!

So there you go the first ten days of the challenge. I wonder what the next ten will be? Will I still have the energy to keep going? This week is going to be busy too with things on at school for the kids so I will have to organise my time well. I also have to add how much I love doing this challenge, I mean if I didn't love it I wouldn't do it. I really like the Organised Housewife blog she has some good tips and a lot of her routines are similar to my own so for me it's easy to follow. I see a lot of resemblance to Flylady on her site, I think she must have got a lot of her ideas from there which is cool I like Flylady too but I think her routines are really helpful when you have no clue how to get started. I still use her 15 minute timer trick for doing jobs that I don't want to do or that seem daunting. I also really love how I've met so many interesting people on Instagram that are also doing the challenge. I like making new friends :o)

Apart from that I haven't really had time for much else. I don't think I've set foot in the doll room all week! Hoping I'll have some free time soon when my house is all clean and shiny lol. ﻿

2 comments:

No wonder you were able to catch up so fast! Your house was already very clean to start with!! Mine however, ahem, is another story!I have to say I'm really enjoying this challenge too, even though I'm so far behind. For the first time in a long time, I actually feel like I'm getting on top of it all. I try to write cleaning routines, but I never stick to them. Maybe it's because I'm always feeling so overwhelmed. But I am loving the morning routine.....getting my eldest to school on time with NO yelling! I will definitely be sticking to that one!Looking forward to following your progress over the next week and the rest of the challenge :)

Oh Tracey I'm so sorry I thought I had replied to your comment and then I get here today and I hadn't! Too much cleaning has clearly fried what few brain cells I had left lol.I feel like I'm chasing my tail this week and getting behind on things *sigh*